


Hang The Moon From My Lips; You Are Mine

by bittlebunny (american_homos_story)



Series: Assorted AUs [4]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: AU, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, lots of imagery!!!, this was so fun to write omg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-22
Updated: 2016-06-22
Packaged: 2018-07-16 13:44:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7270654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/american_homos_story/pseuds/bittlebunny
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What happens when the sun burns on and on and tirelessly on, craving to be conquered coolly by the night?</p><p>(Soulmate AU in which people are born with matching/complimentary marks)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hang The Moon From My Lips; You Are Mine

**Author's Note:**

> Requested by the lovely [@hellokyochan](http://hellokyochan.tumblr.com) on Tumblr!! This is unbeta'd and also my first attempt at any kind of soulmate au, so I hope y'all enjoy!!

William Poindexter is 99% sure he’s in love. Derek is perfect; he understands Dex, he knows how to push his buttons and when he shouldn’t. He’s the flowing, eloquent stream that runs through William’s ravine of rough edges. The only problem? Their tattoos don’t match.

That’s the 1% for Dex. After almost two years of knowing Derek, two long years of fighting and bickering and debating and flirting and falling in love, he still isn’t really sure. Even if he is in love with him, how do you even go about loving someone you know isn’t your soulmate?

He’s tried convincing himself that maybe somehow, Derek’s really does match his. He knows that Derek has a few, but the one he focuses on is the large band on his upper right arm. Dex was born with one on his upper left. A simple, small sun. He’s tried justifying his feelings in every possible way.

 _Maybe it doesn’t have to do with what the tattoos_ are _, but their size. Mine is small and his is big. Maybe opposites attract? Maybe it has something to do with the colors. Maybe they match through relation to some kind of ancient belief system?_ Yeah, he’s gone there. All he’s left with is a pile of maybes, hollow and empty and too heavy to get rid of.

William hasn’t addressed it with Derek. What would be the point? Sure, they flirt and the fool around. Hook up occasionally. But if he knows Derek isn’t his soulmate, why just instigate pain for both of them? He’s always been self conscious of the mark; sometimes it almost feels like it’s growing hot, glowing through his clothes. He’s sure it’s in his imagination, but he only seems to imagine it when he’s around Derek….

So, Derek hasn’t seen the tattoo. Nobody really has, actually. Dex tends to cover it up often subconsciously, whenever he’s without a top. Besides, it’s hard to tell what the tattoo is thanks to a violent smattering of freckles bestowed upon him by the real sun, the one he’s worked under summer after summer.

There have been times when William has been tempted to bump shoulders with Derek, just to see what might happen. He’s heard rumors that when the two marks meet, the soulmates will be able to tell. It creates a sort of link between them. Or, rather, it completes the link. He’d asked Bitty about it once.

“Hey, Bitty?” he’d asked as he sat at the counter in the kitchen.

“Hmm?” Eric responded, absentmindedly licking some kind of batter off a spoon.

Dex cleared his throat. “What was it like? When, uh...When you and Jack sealed your link?”

The spoon had been quickly returned to a bowl, and Bitty was sitting across from him in seconds, a light in his eyes. As if nobody had ever asked.

“Dex, honey, it was amazing,” Bitty has squealed, holding out his hand to show Dex the small oval on the tip of his right index finger. “It was like coming home after a long trip. My whole body felt kinda tingly and warm, inside and out. The world felt lighter, _looked_ lighter. I might be making this up, but it felt like I was floating.”

Dex had chuckled, eyes unfocused. The image of Bitty’s halo-shaped mark burned onto his eyes. “That’s pretty intense.”

Bitty just shrugged and hopped down from the counter, going back to the bowl. “I suppose. But in a good way! And I think it’s different for every pair, too. Why? Do you think…” Bitty looked into the other room, where Nursey was dozing on the couch.

Dex had just scoffed and waved him off. “No, I was asking because I was interested in _you_.”

 

* * *

 

Dex still can’t help but wonder, though. Maybe he’s missing something. It’s possible not every single pair of markings follows the same rules. He goes to the library, does all the research he can on soul markings. Nothing to indicate that there have been exceptions to the norm.

How, then, could he ever feel this way about somebody? He really can’t even begin to fathom how someone not destined to be with him forever could make his heart beat faster, could make him melt at the touch. Derek Nurse is so different from William, and under any other circumstances he thinks he would probably dislike him. Hell, he did, at first. The two of them are like night and day. Somehow, though, he’s done a complete turn around that mentality. They rarely spend a day without being in each other’s company. When they do, they text, or talk on the phone. The two of them may as well be dating.

That’s why every kiss feels like a sin. Really, they shouldn’t be kissing at all. Dex was raised conservatively, meaning he was taught to save all of himself for his soulmate. He was giving himself away to somebody he didn’t belong with. Of course, there are people out there who aren’t bothered by that concept. Others who never find their soulmate, or simply don’t have one. Dex understands that. But he was born with a soulmark, and the way it buzzes with life on his shoulder whenever Derek’s lips touch his is a confusing concept.

The concept of having a soulmate is like an elephant that enters every room they’re in. Neither of them has ever addressed it out of fear of things coming to an end. Dex has never asked about Nursey’s unusually large soul mark, and Nursey has never asked Dex for a better look. It’s actually a lack of closure that brings William a feeling of peace and warmness, the fact that they can hold hands and cuddle and kiss each other for as long as they want, so long as they don’t find their soulmates first.

 

* * *

 

“Yo, dudes,” Lardo says. “Something we’ve never done. Soul mark talk. Go.”

Dex wouldn’t call this a party, necessarily. Just the hockey team sitting around, buzzed off their asses. The windows are open and the coolness of the summer night laps at his skin, urging him to throw away the walls of the house, the ceiling. Urging him out. Dex has never really liked nighttime, though. Something about the lack of light, the uncertainty, has never been desirable to him.

“This should be interesting,” Bitty drawls, shooting Dex a quick glance. He shrugs in return; he’d had nothing to do with the topic’s being brought up.

“Who wants to go first? Bits?” Lardo asks, lying back onto her elbows. The whole team is sitting on the floor, the furniture pushed out to the edges of the room so a large circle-like shape can form.

Eric groans. “Y’all already know this story.” He holds up his finger. Dex can't help but be reminded of E.T.

“I’ve always loved Halo by Beyonce because it reminded me of my mark. It’s a ‘lil halo! See?” Bitty says, moving his hand around to show everybody. A smile so warm it could soften butter.

Lardo smiles. “Okay, but what about Jack? Don’t you think he’d have realized things sooner?”

Eric laughs and shrugs. “Right, so, his mark is identical. I think most are?” He gets a few shrugs and continues. “Anyway, he confessed to me a few weeks after we became official that he always saw his as more of a hockey puck than anything. Even that week-long stint I had when I only listened to Halo, it didn’t click for him.”

“Dude, that’s fuckin’ adorable. Jack is also sort of an idiot,” Holster says, voice warm and sleepy.

Bitty, who’s sitting next to him, smacks his shoulder. “He is _not!_ He was just focused on other things,” he giggles. “Anyway, he sees it like a halo now. He calls me his angel sometimes,” Eric finishes, blushing.

“If I remember that in the morning, it’s a fine,” Ransom slurs.

Eric scoffs. “I should fine you and Holster for kissing every two minutes, then! It’s only fair!”

Holster shrugs. “We can’t help it; it feels good when our marks touch.”

“Oh, yeah! Yours are on the inside of your lips, right?” Lardo asks.

Ransom nods, pulling his bottom lip down to reveal an ice cream cone. Holster does the same. “Mine is strawberry, Holtz has mint chip,” Ransom says. It’s almost impossible to decipher what he’s saying due to the fact that he’s drunk, and he’s yet to release his lip. Finally he lets it go and says, “Sometimes when we kiss, I can like...taste the fuckin’ ice cream. I swear.”

Dex finds himself chuckling, momentarily forgetting the grief that soul marks have been causing him. He absentmindedly rubs at his, eyes flicking to Derek. He seems down, too.

“What about you, Lards?” Holster asks.

She blushes. “Mine’s right between my shoulders. It’s an equals sign.”

Tango raises an eyebrow. “Is Shitty’s in the same place?”

Lardo flushes even deeper red. “No, it’s uh...It’s right over his top lip.”

“Holy fuck, dude…” Ransom says.

“...The mustache,” Holster finishes.

She nods. “He got a lot of shit for it when he was younger and as soon as facial hair started growing in, he saw it as an opportunity. It’s under there, though! What about you, Nursey? You’ve been awfully quiet,” she says, obviously wanting to change the subject.

Derek shrugs. “I think it’s a bunch of bullshit.”

The tension in the room is virtually tangible. Every single eye is on him, eyebrows raised, jaws slightly dropped.

He quickly adds, “Don’t get me wrong! I’m not saying soul connections aren’t real or anything like that. You guys obviously experience that shit. All I’m saying is, we should be able to fall in love with whoever, regardless of some mark we were born with, yeah? Love doesn’t have to be a pre-determined fate. It should be spontaneous.”

Crickets. Literally; Dex can hear them through the open windows. He wants to open his mouth, wants to say something. But he doesn’t even know how he feels.

“Look,” Nursey says, sighing. “I...I already met my soulmate.”

Dex hasn’t ever felt such an intense rush of so many separate emotions. Relief, for one. There’s some kind of closure, now. But there’s also disappointment, dropping in his stomach like a bird shot from the sky. Intrigue. Jealousy. Sadness.

“It was in highschool. We met my sophomore year. He was...perfect. Well read, artistic, sort of angsty, just my type, you know? We dated for three years, _three fucking years,_ and then he broke my heart. He left me for some girl. Decided not to go to college, to move to the fucking suburbs and get married. He always had so much passion and drive, and to see him fall like that was heartbreaking enough. He said some mean stuff, though. Not a cordial breakup, to say the least. Sometimes shit doesn’t work out, doesn’t matter if they’re supposed to be your fucking soulmate or whatever.” He finishes, taking a deep breath and trying to discreetly wipe a tear out of his eye.

“Derek,” Bitty says gently, “what if he wasn’t really your soulmate? Have you considered that?”

“Of course I have,” Derek snaps, pulling back immediately. “Sorry. Yeah, we had matching marks and everything. I...I was so upset when he broke up with me, I went and got my mark tattoo’d over. The band on my right arm? It’s under there.”

Bitty nods, pursing his lips together. Derek stands up from the circle, quickly exiting the room and heading for the kitchen. Dex looks around at the baffled faces around him; when he realizes nobody’s planning to follow, he gets up and goes after him.

He finds Derek leaning against the counter, taking deep breaths.

“Hey, Derek,” he says, as gently as he can. The river that is Derek Nurse has smoothed out some of the rough canyon walls, it seems.

Nursey turns his head, smiling weakly. “Sorry, Will. I had to get out of there. It got overwhelming.”

Dex nods sympathetically. “I get it. Do you wanna sit?” he asks, pulling a chair out for Derek. He sits down in another and watches as Nursey backs away from the counter, slowly sitting. “Do you wanna talk about it?”

Nursey shrugs. “Dunno. What more is there to say? We’re sort of together now, right?”

“Yeah, I guess we are. Screw him for breaking your heart.”

Nursey nods appreciatively. There’s a pause, a slight tension, until Dex says “You never told us what kind of mark he had.”

“Oh, so you’re snooping now, huh?” Derek says, smirking slightly.

Dex feels his cheeks go a little pink under the red freckles. “Sorry. You don’t have to answer it.”

“Star.”

“Hmm?”

“He had a star.”

Dex can feel something in his body nearly lurch forward. His palms are suddenly sweaty, his pulse is now conducting the conversation. He licks his lips and asks, “So, what’s yours, then?”

Nursey eyes him suspiciously. “It’s a crescent moon,” he says slowly, “but like I said, you can’t really tell anymore.”

His heart nearly bursts. “Oh shit,” he mutters under his breath.

“What’s wrong?” Derek asks him.

“You were wrong, Der. That guy wasn’t your soulmate. Look.” He quickly stands and pulls up the sleeve on his left arm as far as he can, revealing the small sun blazing under a sky of freckles.

“Will, is that...a sun?”

Dex is desperately trying to conjure some moisture back into his mouth. He nods. “It’s a sun. And it’s burning hot. I knew I wasn’t imagining that,” he says, voice frantic with glee.

Derek stands up, feeling his own shoulder for the place where he knows the original mark was. “Why didn’t I just fucking ask,” he mutters under his breath. Nursey looks Dex in the eye, hunching down to press it against William’s own shoulder.

The sensation is nothing like what Bitty described, he doesn’t taste ice cream like Ransom and Holster. There’s a chill that runs through his arm and to his entire body, somehow cold but hot at the same time. It settles in his stomach, burning and freezing. It feels like universes are expanding behind his eyelids, suns and moons and stars colliding.

The moment ends. Derek steps away, bringing a hand to his forehead. Dex’s right hand instinctively goes to his left shoulder, where the small circle is definitely warmer than the rest of his skin. He could be imagining it, but he thinks he can see Derek’s crescent shining through the other ink.

William Poindexter is 100% sure he's in love.

 

* * *

 

Dex had never really looked at the night sky before. What was there to see? It was an expanse of blackness, emptiness. It reminded him too much of what he saw when he closed his eyes.

Now though, with a familiar silver crescent posted in the sky and another pressed against his shoulder, he sees differently. Just like the galaxies etched onto the backs of his eyelids, he can see a thousand new stars from his place in the grass. He decides, after twenty years on Earth, that maybe the darkness of night isn’t uncertain at all. It wraps you up like a giant blanket, but you don’t trip because that sliver of moon is lighting the way.

**Author's Note:**

> Like/reblog on Tumblr: ([X](http://bittlebunny.tumblr.com/post/146291283023/hang-the-moon-from-my-lips-you-are-mine))  
> Leave me some comments letting me know what y'all think <3


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